Feedback on a 2900 gratfs fut procedure

Hair Transplant
1

Dear Hair loss community,

I wanted to share my experience but also to have a feedback from you concerning my FUT procedure of 2900 grafts from November 2012. The picture on the left is pre-operative and the one on the right is 12 months post-operative.
I’ll provide more pictures in a couple of months as I don’t currently have them at reach.
Please do not hesitate to share your thoughts on that,

Cheers

2

No change.

3

Looks like you lost some hair but the before pic is so much darker, it’s hard to tell… who’s the doc?

4

I agree with that, I even consider it is worse

5

It is true that there’s a difference of light but I think the pictures still remain representative. People’s opinion around me is even more categorical than mine…
Would you think this difference (pre/post-op) could solely be explained with a progressive alopecia when (in my view) my hair loss was stabilized before the surgery?
I can’t reveal the name of the Doctor yet since I’m still trying to negotiate things.

6

The lighting is very different. I posted the following to demonstrate the impact lighting has on photos.

The contents of my posts are my opinions and not medical advice
Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Ask for Chuck

7

Yes but this time, it is the preoperative picture on the left that seems a LOT LIGHTER… Anyway, anyone can see that there was no improvement after the surgery which is always the case after a successful intervention…Indeed a successful operation always appears obvious to people’s eyes…
My feeling is that I have even less hair, in particular referring to people’s categorical opinion. And that cosmetic impression is what matters the most, since this is the only patient’s final concern. Also keep in mind it was a 2900 grafts procedure, the least one can say is that the operation was unsuccessful, at best that its result was very poor…

8

It also seems that you darkened the postoperative picture on the left besides of lightening the preoperative one on the right to prove your point, which wouldn’t be fair either…

9

Here is a better balanced picture, in my view…

10

Judging by that last set of pics alone I could imagine some increase there.

But its not almost 3000 grafts’ worth of improvement. It would be generous to call that 1000.

11

I was simply stating that camera flash/bright lighting has a big effect on the appearance of hair fullness. I wasn’t commenting on your result or attempting to balance the lighting of the two images. The photo I posted showed the result photo darker to illustrate how adjusted lighting can make one appear that they have more hair.

Some guys take a photo with their phone on flash and get depressed because their hair looks thin. Hair can appear thinner in a photo taken with a flash than it does in direct sunlight.

A rule of thumb is, if you see white or yellow/white on the scalp of a before photo and white is absent on the after photo, the appearance of hair loss is exaggerated beyond reality.

The contents of my posts are my opinions and not medical advice
Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Ask for Chuck

12

To me, there’s no improvement at all, it’s even worse according to people knowing me…

13

Good enough, I just wanted to offer my point of vue about the lightening since I HAVEN’T taken these pictures, the surgeon’s team did…So why would I adjust myself the light on these pictures?

I still did it because checking and knowing the pictures, I had the feeling that the post-op picture was also darkened, certainly in an attempt to re-balance exposure. Nonetheless, one can also simply lighten the pre-op picture (which I did in my previous post) so to equalize the exposure, when darkening gives the feeling of more hair being present and thus of a better surgical result.

Basically, lightening at the same time the preop picture (impression of less hair before surgery) and darkening the post-op one (impression of more hair after surgery) didn’t really seem fair to me since that would have much inverted the contrast in favor of a successful surgical result, which, even then, was still not demonstrated after your light adjustment.

Don’t get me wrong you’re still invited to comment on this post but if you intend to “photoshop” pictures please inform people of what you’re really doing.
Moreover, even at the light of your pictures, would you sincerely say there would be any sort of improvement after surgery?

14

What about your strip scar? Normal?

15

[quote][postedby]
Don’t get me wrong you’re still invited to comment on this post but if you intend to “photoshop” pictures please inform people of what you’re really doing.
Moreover, even at the light of your pictures, would you sincerely say there would be any sort of improvement after surgery?[/quote]

Although PhotoShop is abused in some cases, it also has a perfectly legitimate application. PhotoShop remains the world standard image editing software.

As far as your improvement, a lot factors in. A man’s donor characteristics have a huge impact on the final hair transplant result. Also there is the four steps forward, two steps backward reality some men are faced with who have aggressive MPB. In other words, you may have continued to lose a good amount of hair in that one year period, waiting for your transplanted hair to grow.

Sometimes it’s the clinic’s fault, sometimes the patient sunburns his recipient area soon after surgery. Bariatric Surgery commonly causes hair loss. Often a patient takes medication that have a hair loss side effect. That happened to me while taking Allegra, Ibuprofen and glucosamine and chondroitin. My hair thinned all over by around 40%. Occasionally patients get some shock loss after strip surgery in particular that usually grows back. You should express your concerns to your doctor. Also google any medications you are taking even if they are over the counter. Also consider taking a supplement like Buried Treasure’s “Hair Skin and Nails”.

The contents of my posts are my opinions and not medical advice
Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Ask for Chuck

16

Ok since I haven’t heard from the surgeon or his clinic, I can now tell his name: Dr Arvind Poswal (India) also known as Dr A’s performed the surgery, and wasn’t willing to accomodate me. Dr Arvind Poswal did some of the openings for the grafts and his staff did the rest.
Up to now, the FUT procedure left me a scar that remains painful at times and that is far above (at least on the sides above the ears) the promised "state of the art” result for wound closure of 1-2 mm. I can even feel it by touch on the sides (above the ears)…The only area where I can tell grafts regrew are the gulfs but given it was most densely transplanted area, the yield is really poor.

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Up to now, the FUT procedure left me a scar that remains painful at times and that is far above (at least on the sides above the ears) the promised "state of the art” result for wound closure of 1-2 mm. I can even feel it by touch on the sides (above the ears)…The only area where I can tell grafts regrew are the gulfs but given it was most densely transplanted area, the yield is really poor.

I put a picture (at 2 months post-op) that doesn’t show the worse part of the scar (above the ears)

18

  • I’m sure to understand what you mean with that statement:
    "As far as your improvement, a lot factors in. A man’s donor characteristics have a huge impact on the final hair transplant result. Also there is the four steps forward, two steps backward reality some men are faced with who have aggressive MPB. In other words, you may have continued to lose a good amount of hair in that one year period, waiting for your transplanted hair to grow."
    Are you sure you wouldn’t be using any online translator to write your posts since it seems that words are missing in your sentences…

  • I didn’t get any sunburns since I was wearing a cap all the time, so that can not have interfered with my hair regrowth.

  • I was not under medication before, during (other than the finasteride present within a shampoo that can only help) or after the surgery. So you can wave that possibility of medication having impeded the regrowth.

  • Shock loss can occur and last for some time, however at some point the hair has to grow back and it cannot last for over a year (it’s been roughly a year and half that I underwent surgery)

  • To summarize, it can only be the clinic’s fault in my view.

  • And finally I expressed my concerns to the Doctor Arvind Poswal and he stated the poor result was due to a progressive hair loss. But no one has less/or the same amount of hair hair after a 2900 grafts surgery unless this surgery was a failure…